Today, sprinkler valves are typically pure mechanical components of fire protection systems (FPSs). Their state usually determines the availability of sprinkler protection in areas downstream of the valve. Fires in premises with improperly closed valves (ICVs), which inhibit sprinkler operation, are believed to result in property losses eleven to twelve times more costly than fires in premises that are sprinkler protected.
In order to ensure operation of fire protection systems, businesses typically conduct manual inspections of sprinkler valves according to specific guidelines. Depending on the distribution of valves and valve types at a given facility, manual inspections of a typical United States or European site are believed to cost approximately $150 to $200 per valve per year. Furthermore, the manual inspections are human-led and may therefore not be as reliable as desired. For example, the average failure rate of human-led inspection in detecting ICVs is believed to be ten percent, meaning one out of ten improperly closed valves is not identified. Therefore, there is a need for an automated solution that leads to higher reliability as well as increased efficiency.
Fire protection valves are available with switches and wires that can be used to send signals regarding their status. The known valves and systems incorporating them are cost prohibitive, not robust, and unreliable for use in fire protection systems, and hence they have not been widely adopted or incorporated into applicable standards. This may be due to three main reasons: (1) facilities that warrant these valves typically include a large number of valves, thus wired systems require extensive wiring; (2) frequently fire protection valves are located at large distances from each other and from central fire protection management systems, further increasing costs and posing reliability concerns for wired systems; and (3) many fire protection system valves are already in place, and hence retrofitting, or adding new wired sensors to existing valves or new valves to existing systems can be costly and cumbersome.